Menu for Hope II - Please Read and Donate

Chez Pim http://www.chezpim.typepad.com has organized a wonderful raffle/fundraiser for the food blogging community to donate to the victims of the earthquakes in India and Pakistan.

I hope you will partcipate. Due to my flu, I have just decided to copy and paste her post about the event at Blog Appetit. You can check out her post in its original here. For information on how to participate in the raffle and PICK your prize, please click here

Here is Chez Pim's original post on the event. Thanks, Pim, for organzing this.

From Chez Pim:

"Welcome to the second annual A Menu for Hope campaign. As another year of our blogging adventures draws to a close, and as we are preparing to celebrate the holidays with our families and friends, we would like to take advantage of the season to ask you –our kind readers- for a little favor. Last year, we raised a substantial sum to support the victims of the Tsunami in Southeast Asia. This year, a group of us food bloggers would like to ask our readers -that would be you- to help us raise funds to support the victims of the devastating earthquake in the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan.

"But what fun would it be just to come begging you for some dough, even if it is for a great cause? So, in order not to turn our otherwise fun blogs into the PBS pledge break bore, we've put together a huge list of cool, fun, and personal gifts -like only we could- to entice you to donate. Each of those gifts is offered as a virtual raffle prize. All you have to do is donate $5 and you will be eligible for the raffle drawing for a gift of your choice.
On our menu this year is everything from a chance to have an afternoon tea with the one and only Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini, to a personalized Napa Valley itinerary created by über-wine blogger Alder of Vinography, to a chance to be in the Amateur Gourmet Adventure video with Adam himself, to three very fancy hampers featuring the true artisanal flavors of the San Francisco Bay Area put together by Sam of Becks and Posh, and many, many more.
We are once again using the site Just Giving to collect the donation. In the interest of transparency, Just Giving will do all the collection and forward the funds directly to Unicef, our recipient organization. The fund will be earmarked to support the victims of the Kashmir earthquake.

"Recipe to participate:1. Find the gift you would like on our menu.2. Go to A Menu for Hope II donation page and donate $5 or whatever sum you could spare. 3. Tell us in the comment section of your donation form which gift(s) you would like have. Each $5 donation will give you one chance at winning the prize of your choice. (Yes, if you donate more than $5, you are allowed to specify more than one prize.) 4. That's it!
Our campaign will end on December 23rd, and the winners will be announced and the prizes sent to corresponding winners after January 1st 2006.
(See the entire menu after the jump.)

"Some of our celebrity bloggers are offering personalized gifts to entice their fans to give, and give a lot.

"As I mentioned previously, The One, The Only, Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini is offering up Haute Pâtisserie, a chance to share an afternoon tea with her at Café de la Mairie in Paris, with patisserie of your choice from Pierre Hermé around the corner.
Meanwhile, that Amateur Gourmet Adam is offering a chance at fame, to participate in an Amateur Gourmet video with The Amateur Gourmet and his Amateur Gourmette Lisa.
Our über-wine blogger Alder of Vinography will create a customized Napa or Sonoma Wine Country Tour Itinerary just for you.

"My girl Louisa of Movable Feast, the itinerant chef extraodinaire, offers a personalized Fixer's guide to Paris. Yes, do what Anthony Bourdain did when he was in Paris, have our Louisa create your own personalized guide of Paris for you.

"The adorable Heidi, yes, that Heidi, will give you a one-hour food photography lesson (if the winner is local) and a signed copy of her cookbook Cook 1.0. Have you seen her photos? I'd jump for a chance at that lesson for sure.Flavors of the worldOne of the many wonderful things about food blogs is our amazing diversity. Here are a few samples of our diverse flavors that could be yours.

"Sam of Becks and Posh solicited donations from the best Bay Area artisanal food purveyors and created three very fancy baskets filled to the brim with a sample of the best that the Bay Area has to offer. The Hungry Bay Hopper: with certificates for meals at Tres Agaves, Tabla, and Couleur Cafe, Vodka tasting at Hangar One with 3 bottles of liquors, and classes at Tante Marie Cooking School. The Ferry Building Bonanza, with Purity Organic fruit juice, charcuterie from the Fatted Calf, St Benoit Yoghurts, wine tasting at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchants, Marin Sun Farms grass fed beef, cheese from Cowgirl Creamery and a dinner at Tres Agaves.A basket fo food books from the Bay, with Tante Marie Cooking School Book, The French Laundry Cookbook, Chocolate Obsession, and The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.

"Fatemeh of Gastronomie offers two gifts, a "ready to cook" Persian dinner "kit". She will measure and prepackage all the ingredients and provide a step-by-step recipe card. If the winner wanted to pay for overnight shipping on ice, she'll even cook it as well. The second gift is her "Persian Pantry" filled with Persian foodstuffs valued at around $50-75. Considering that Persian foods might not be so easy to find in your neck of the woods, this sounds like a mighty tempting gift, no?
Brett of In Praise of Sardines is honoring the culinary tradition of the area we are trying to help by putting together a gourmet basket with ingredients needed to make a traditional Kashmiri meal: a selection of spices (including saffron and difficult to find Kashmiri red chilli) and home-made spice mixtures, a traditional spice box (masala dabba), Basmati rice, Indian tea (for masala chai), some North Indian recipes from his wife's family, and Kashmiri recipes gathered from his own collection of 30 South Asian cookbooks.

"Meg and Brett from Too Many Chefs put together a goodie basket of French products to include foie gras, sea salt, snails and more, and also a copy of the chocolate book by our friend David Lebovitz.

"Shauna James of Gluten Free Girl offers a Seattle food basket: smoked salmon; organic coffee; Fran's gray salt caramels; and a copy of Tom Douglass' cookbook.

"Rachael of Fresh Approach Cooking will give a Jin Patisserie 12 Piece Box. The chocolates include: The de Concubine, Passion fruit, The du Hammum, Mango Kalamansi, Caramel Clove, Cinnamon, Pandan, Chrysanthemum, Lavender, Ginger, Café Rhum and Black Roasted Sesame.
Michèle of Oswego Tea, who just recently moved to Paris, will share her favorite recent find, Mariage Frères Tea.

"Keiko of Nordljus is giving a green tea, Matcha, from Japan plus a recipe for one of her own matcha desserts.

"Alice Yamada of Epicurean Debauchery is offering a Make-Your-Own Sushi Starter Kit with roller mats, a shamoji (a rice scooper), recipes, and some seaweed and wasabi.
Eve, the Chocolate Lady offers up a bottle of vodka infused with Buddha Hand Citron
Megan of I Heart Bacon gives a Casina Rossa Truffle & Salt.
Elise of Simply Recipes gives a jar of her delicious (speaking from experience) jar of homemade apple butter.

"Vanessa, she who craves, gives a homemade jar of marmalade. And, in the twist of flavor as only a farm blogger could pull off, our farmgirl Susan is giving a chance to be the honorary owner of the firstborn ewe lamb at her farm next spring."

"Kitchen letters and more letters

"We are offering up a number of books to add to your cookbook collection. David Lebovitz will send you a signed copy of his Chocolate Book. Wena of Mum Mum gives a book on the wonderful Nonya cooking, Foods of my childhood : Penang Nyonya Cooking, by Cecilia Tan
Derrick of Obsession with Food, who occasionally contributes to The Art of Eating is offering a one year subscription to The Art of Eating magazine.

"Melissa of the gorgeous Traveler's Lunchbox offers Culinary Artistry by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. Amy of Cooking with Amy with give the Very Maple Syrup cookbook and her very special homemade Maple Nut Granola. Owen Linderholm, the publisher of Digital Dish: Five Seasons of the freshest recipes and writing from food blogs around the world, is providing three copies of the book for this menu.

"Stephanie of the Happy Sorceress will give a copy of Giada de Laurentis's new book.
Sweetnicks gives the Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. Faith Kramer of Blog Appetit offers a brand new copy of the Bouchon cookbook. Luisa, The Wednesday Chef, offers Anne Willan's Cooked to Perfection. Clement of the beautiful A La Cuisine! offers The Cook's Book by Jill Norman and three jars of Anton Kozlik's Canadian mustard.

"Anne of Anne's Food gives a wonderful book from her homeland of Sweden, Swedish Cakes and Cookies. Christina, the Medieval mistress of the Thorngrove Table will give Barbara Santich's The Original Mediterranean Cuisine: Medieval Recipes for Today. Laura the red headed chef of Cucina Testa Rossa offers an autographed Jacques Pepin, Fast Food My Way book. Kate of the wonderfully Accidental Hedonist provides us with two books, Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" and "Marcella Says... : Italian Cooking Wisdom". Andrew of Spittoon provides a copy of Cook Until Desired Tenderness, a small book by Cleo Papanikolas.

"Also, throwing in a bit of suspense for good measure, we have one blogger, Jen of Life Begins at 30, pledging a mysterious gift. Check out her blog today to see what surprising gift she has in store for you.

"And last, but not least I should hope, your humble host here on Chez Pim would like to offer up a $200 gift certificate for a meal at Manresa. I don't have to tell you about Manresa, do I? Because if that's the case then you really haven't spent enough time chez moi. I should be so offended!

"Well, so how about it? These great gifts are enticing enough for you to give a few dollars for our good cause? What are you waiting for? Donate! Pretty please. "